Laura’s POV 90
“I didn’t think so.” Holly is surprisingly calm.
She takes a deep breath and stares me right in the eyes. “I didn’t think letting you see this would do anything for me, but I had to let you see it. I didn’t have an agenda, I just wanted to show Carter’s ugliest side to someone!”
“Queenie cheated on Cameron a long time ago!” She said, “She’s been hooking up with Carter and having Carter’s kids … Heh, and as for Carter as a person, he’s weird as hell. He used to be in bad health when he had the chance to share your bed, and now that he’s in good health, you’re dead set on becoming Cameron’s guy.”
“What else can he do but stay with Queenie? And Queenie was nothing but a use to him!”
A wave of dizziness washed over me, and my heart felt like it was clogged with a large, uncomfortable rock.
“I’m going back.” I held my stomach as I felt this baby already falling down, making every step I took exceptionally difficult.
My entire body was drenched in cold sweat. “I just don’t have the strength. Holly, you and Carter and Queenie, this mess you have with each other is your own business, leave me out of it!”Upstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g
“How can it not involve you?” She laughed softly, “Laura, Carter is going to marry you sooner or later for the inheritance. Are you just going to watch your husband having an affair with another woman? How Queenie dealt with you before, have you forgotten?”
“That’s why you called me out today, isn’t it?” I looked at her, “You want me to catch the adultery and scandalize these two like when the video of me and Cameron went viral all over the world! Then The Lynch Family will be in disarray again, and even though it won’t do you any good, you can watch from the sidelines and fall on your sword!”
“Ha!” She laughed out loud, “Laura, you’re good, and you’re absolutely right! Since that last incident, Carter withdrew his funding … Magazine is facing closure, and all of my years of hard work is going to be destroyed!”
Holly’s face was fierce, like she was going to pounce on me and strangle me at any time. My back was pressed against the wall, and my hand tightly gripped the door handle.
“Since he’s doing this, I’ll simply die with him!” She shouted, “He broke my back, and I’m not going to make it easy for him!”
“Holly,” I looked at her quietly, “Carter is despicable for sure, but you’ve come this far because you’ve done more than your fair share! I treated you like my best friend and you betrayed me. You say you want to get back at Carter, but why wouldn’t I want to get back at you?”
“Holly, we should both calm down.” I said, “Being friends again is impossible. But we can end this peacefully and never see each other again. In the future you should also take the right path …”
“End it peacefully?” Her face changed, then she laughed out loud, “Can I still be calm? Magazine is my whole heart blood, I have paid for this magazine how much, do you know, Carter one sentence withdrawal of funds, so easily destroyed, but he forgot that I once gave him how many hurtful things!”
“By the way …” she paused for a moment, gently hooked her lips, “Speaking of which I’ll tell you a little more … that video of you and Cameron, it was Carter spread out!”
“What did you say?” I was shocked.
“It was Carter!” she repeated, “Heh, but Cameron looks smart, but is actually an idiot! This kind of video he actually saved on his computer. Carter had someone crack his computer password and easily got to … Gee, what’s in there really takes my breath away!”
“It’s full of intimate videos of you two.” The mockery at the corner of her mouth was like a branding iron in my eyes, “No less than that love action movie you just saw!”
“Looks like these two brothers are really different in this regard!”
I pursed my lips tightly, unable to say a word, nor did I have the strength to. My stomach was hurting more and more, and I could barely move my steps. The intense pain was almost tearing my entire being apart, the intervals were long in the beginning, and later on, it would hurt almost once every one or two minutes, one time more powerful than the other.
This was probably the paroxysm.
I sat helplessly on the floor, taking big, deep breaths.
A wave of heat bubbled up from underneath me, as if I were incontinent.
There was a puddle of water at my feet, and blood was slowly running down my calves.
“What happened to you?” Holly’s eyes changed.
“Laura…” She knelt down and shook my arm, “What’s wrong with you? You’re not going into labor!”
Disgusted by her touch, I fought to push her away, twisting the doorknob with all my strength and stumbling out. I was still conscious at the time, and despite the excruciating pain, I was still trying to make a case for myself …
If I could just get out of this door and find the driver, he could take me to the hospital and I could have this baby safely …
Laura, hold on just a little longer and have this baby.
I stepped forward, but I took a step and almost rolled down the stairs. The living room is startled and I hear a scream followed by hurried footsteps.
“Why is she here!” Queenie’s voice, “Carter, she’s in labor!”
“Carter, what to do?”
“I think it’s better not to let her give birth … get her here, God knows what!”
The surrounding noise and clutter, my vision is getting blurred. The intense pain has taken over my entire consciousness. I can’t feel anything else, I can’t hear or see, my struggle may be insignificant in their eyes, I’m just a mole cricket, they can step on me at will.
I huffed and looked at Carter.
A hint of hesitation seemed to pass through his eyes.
“What are you waiting for?” It was that shrill female voice again.
Suddenly a pair of hands lifted me up. “I’m going to keep them … still useful!”
Those were the last words I heard before I passed out.
I woke up with a fiery pain in my stomach, which I later learned was a knife cut, eight layers of skin were cut, and a small baby girl weighing five pounds was removed from that large opening.
“Ms. Laura, mother and daughter are safe, congratulations.” The nurse pushed a wheelchair and took me to see the baby.
Being almost a month early, the baby was a little small and would have to stay in an incubator for a few more days. I looked through the glass from afar, tiny she was lying in the incubator, like a little red meatball, her whole body skin was wrinkled, her eyes were not open yet, her little mouth was opening and closing, not a very good look, but I didn’t feel disappointed at all.
My heart was full of joy.
I thought that baby was the most beautiful baby in the world.
I had a daughter, I was a mom! It was an amazing feeling, she became a separate little person from my body, our umbilical cord was cut, but invisibly it was as if there was another umbilical cord connecting us.
She would be the closest person to me in this world, the only thing I had left for this world.
I suddenly fell into tears.
“Ms. Laura, you must not cry now!” The nurse exclaimed, “You’re still very weak, you’ll fall ill if you cry like that!”
I turned to break into tears, crying and laughing in front of outsiders, it’s almost like I’m a psycho.
Suddenly an icy voice came from behind me, “The child looks seems to be more like Cameron, what do you think?”
I turned back.
There’s an impish smile at the corner of Carter’s mouth.
He raised his hand and the nurse left, he came around behind me to hold the wheelchair and gently pushed me back into the hospital room.
“You’re not quite in the condition for a normal labor and it’s premature.” He said lightly, “So I took it upon myself to sign the consent form for the surgery, is that okay with you?”
I just looked at him and didn’t say anything.
He smiled and came over to me. “On the signature line, it’s spouse!”
I was stunned.
I didn’t know what kind of mood to face him in at the moment.
I’d already crashed his party with Queenie, and I’d learned that he’d been behind all that, even Cameron’s imprisonment!
I hate him, but he saved my life.
If it wasn’t for him, my kids and I wouldn’t be alive.
I can’t help but wonder if he’s a man or a monster. How could he have so many conflicting sides?
Carter took out a small box and inside was actually a bright shiny diamond ring. He took it out and forced it onto my finger, I struggled to get it off and he almost broke my finger, finally giving it to me tucked in my hand.
He looked grim, his face with an unbeatable viciousness.
“What are you doing!” I glared at him.
“Didn’t you understand me just now?” He sneered, “The column I signed was spouse!”
“You think I’m still going to marry you?” I found it unbelievable, “You think I’d marry you after that sordid scene you had with Queenie? Carter, don’t push me! It’s impossible between us!”
“Nothing is impossible with me.” He said, “Laura, what do you think I left you and the baby for? You have to marry me, get the inheritance, and make The Lynch Group entirely mine!”
He squeezed my wrist violently, his gaze venomous, “Do you think I’m keeping you alive so you can wait for Cameron to come back and the three of you to be reunited as a family? Heh … think beautifully! You can’t keep this life in vain, it must be utilized to the maximum extent!”
“Right now your use is to help me fight for that inheritance, as for what happens in the future, I have other plans!”
“Carter!”I forced to endure the pain of my wound and glared at him fiercely, “Since you put your words in such a desperate way, I’ll also tell you … clearly that I won’t marry you! I won’t lose my life’s happiness for people like you!”
“Fine, then we’ll see!” He laughed, “Don’t worry, I’ll find someone to take good care of your daughter’s father!”
“You …”
“As for that little thing in the incubator, I can get it killed anytime!” He gritted his teeth, “Laura, I haven’t set a time for the wedding yet, I can give you enough time to consider whether this deal is a good deal or not! You’d better think it through, do you want Cameron and your daughter all buried with you?”
I looked at him and took a deep breath. The blood stained the sheets red as the cut on his belly ripped. My hair was soaked with sweat against my face, and I clung to the railing along the bed, never having had a moment as helpless as now.
And there’s never been a moment when I’ve been as determined as I am right now.
I threw that ring down the toilet and flushed it down after Carter left.
Two weeks later I was discharged from the hospital with a tiny baby. But what awaited me as soon as I walked through the door of The Lynch Family’s room was a storm.
Carter wouldn’t let me go back to my room, and he ordered me to a utility room on the top floor where I was to stay with the baby. I was no longer a young lady or a young grandmother of The Lynch Family, but a servant of the lowest order, doing the same menial work as the servants, but receiving half their pay.
Anyone can bully me.
The Lynch Family maids have been replaced by a group of Carter’s inner circle who know how to drop the hammer on me.
But it was good that Yasmin didn’t leave. Only later did I realize that it was Mellisa who insisted on keeping Yasmin, even Yasmin herself didn’t understand why Mellisa did that, the day she was left behind, Mellisa only said one thing to her, “Take care of Laura and her baby.”
“Miss Laura, actually the lady is still good to you.” Yasmin said to me.
But I was even more confused.
What reason did she have to be nice to me? I was supposed to be her daughter-in-law, but I was pregnant with Cameron’s baby. I was in such a bad situation with Carter, almost a fish out of water, that she hated me, so why would she help me?
I remembered that she’d actually helped me from the first time I’d met her at The Lynch Family. She helped me from the first time I met her at The Lynch Family. She was in the middle of my confrontation with Ethan, who was furious; she invited me for horseback riding and afternoon tea, and told me a lot of stories about the past generation.
Even during my pregnancy, she took care of me in every way, just didn’t talk to me much.
She didn’t look like she had other plans for me, but I still had to wonder what she was up to.
That night when I finished the rest of the chores around the house and returned to the utility room, Yasmin was already putting the baby to sleep. Looking at her sleepy little face, flushed like an apple, it was as if the aggravation of my day’s labor had instantly dissipated.
“You should rest early too!” Yasmin smiled at me and pointed to something on the table, “Mistress asked me to send this.”
“What is it?”
I saw a thermos sitting on the table.
“This is …”
“It’s carp soup.” Yasmin said, “It’s stewed by Mistress herself, with only a very little bit of salt, but it tastes pretty good! I really didn’t think that Mistress still had this skill.”
“Ms. Laura, drink it while it’s hot.” She looked at me, “It’s for the milk, it’s nutritious. You and the baby need it now.”
My heart fluttered and the tip of my nose was slightly sore.
“Mistress is afraid that you won’t be able to eat or sleep well, so she asked me to quietly look after you.”
I had a feeling about that. For two months, although Carter had come down hard on me, I hadn’t actually had that much work to do, and a lot of things Yasmin had quietly done for me. And Mellisa had people send me some supplements every now and then to replenish my nutrients, and I had plenty of milk, and the baby fed white and chubby, not at all like a premature baby.
But the more Mellisa did, the more uneasy I felt.
I thought of many reasons, but vetoed them all. I even wondered if she had a guilty conscience and felt that Carter had been too hard on me, so she was atoning for her son’s sins. But based on who Mellisa was, she wasn’t much of a kind person when she could put her own sister in a mental institution and irritate her like that. There’s no way she’s going to atone for Carter’s sins in any way.
But I listened to Yasmin, and since there’s a benefit then I’ll take it, even if it’s for the sake of the baby, I’ll have to put everything aside for a while.
This had been a mystery that I couldn’t solve until that day when the mystery was finally solved and my feeling could no longer be described as shock.
The baby is now more than three months old and can already roll over and giggle. Her skin is white, unlike Cameron’s, but she has an aura of strength and determination that cannot be compared to ordinary girls. That’s what I’m most proud of, and that, in a way, she’s just like her father.
I’ve been quietly running around for the past few months, trying to get to meet Cameron.
The day I finally got in line.
I sat in the visiting room with my daughter in my arms, excited and apprehensive.
Five minutes later, Cameron walked out from behind the door, and at that moment my breath almost stopped …